Interview with Eric Davalo VP, Head of Strategic Development for Airbus DS SLC
/SDBR News: Could you tell us about Airbus SLC’s achievements in northern Europe?
Eric Davalo: In northern Europe we have national networks based on Tetra technology operating in Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Germany. We also have local networks, particularly for transportation, operating in Norway and Germany. If we look a little further south, we have national networks operating in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Switzerland. All these countries are equipped with Airbus hardware. It is a region that is also very active in using very high speed mobile networks. This is the case in Finland, a founding country for us, as it was the first Tetra network when the activity belonged to Nokia. It’s a country which began to evolve towards very high speed networks 5 years ago already, with a precise step-by-step plan. In this plan, radio access was contracted with the mobile operator Elisa (the first operator to commercialise the 5G network) and with the purchase of an Ericsson core network in 2020. In 2021, an agreement was signed with Airbus SLC to provide services for transitioning to very high speed networks which allow access to Mission Critical Push-To-Talk (MCPTT) services, equivalent to Tetra on an LTE network. MCPTT makes it possible to use group, voice and data communication functions on the 4G network. The transition services provided by Airbus SLC allow inter-operability with the Tetra system alone, as well as a simplified, step-by-step evolution under the user’s control.
SDBR News: It was a great success for Airbus SLC to be able to support the Finns with this innovative project…
Eric Davalo: Yes indeed, we are delighted to be able to support them because all the secure mobile communication and group communication services provided by the Tetra network will also be available on the 4G network during the transition period, thanks to Agnet services, an Airbus solution. The Finnish contract was signed and we will start implementing it before the end of 2022. This contract has become a driver for our business in Northern Europe since the Swedes are following a similar plan: they have selected a mobile operator and will soon have to choose a core network provider, and, at the same time, with the Swedes, we have already started to lead field trials for using Agnet, so MCPTT on a 4G network. Finland and Sweden, whose Tetra networks are interconnected, interact closely together, as well as with their Norwegian neighbour: this means that a Finnish police officer or firefighter can go to Sweden and continue to connect and communicate with either Swedish or Finnish forces. Finland was also very involved in the European BroadWay project.
SDBR News: Could you remind us what the BroadWay project is ?
Eric Davalo: In early 2019, the European Commission launched the call for tender for the BroadWay project, with the goal of defining the next generation of interoperable broadband communication systems for public safety and emergency organisations in Europe. The objective of this project, funded by the European Union, is to establish interoperability across borders based on 4G or 5G technologies and MCS services for secure group communications. In total, 11 European Union countries – which generally operate the Tetra or Tetrapol networks in their respective countries – are taking part in this project. In addition, approximately 49 emergency response organisations, such as police, fire and emergency medical services, in 14 countries, are involved in evaluating proposed solutions; 60 other organisations expressed their support for the project. BroadWay covers 1.4 million of the 3.5 million emergency response users in Europe. A consortium led by Airbus was selected for this three-phase project. We are in the final phase with the technical demonstrations already carried out, and with the demonstrations on the ground in June. We were able to demonstrate the interoperability of the system using operators in Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, Lithuania and Slovenia, as well as Airbus’ private 4G network at its industrial site in Toulouse. We have demonstrated that it is possible to move from border to border and from network to network, even private networks, without difficulty.
SDBR News: Can the European BroadWay project lead to country-specific developments ?
Eric Davalo: Yes of course. The Finns and Swedes request that the interoperability between their Tetra networks be developed by integrating mobile communication terminals into very high speed networks. In Finland, in early 2020, the Erillisverkot Group, the operator of the state security network Virve, signed the renewal of their maintenance contract with Airbus until 2025. Virve is a Finnish government-owned organisation that provides secure communications for all security and emergency rescue forces: police, civil security, firefighters, emergencies, hospitals, etc. In Sweden, there is a similar organisation called MSB (Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap), which can be translated to “Swedish Civil Contingency Agency”, which covers 90,000 users of MSB’s Tetra network. Airbus signed a contract with MSB to extend its maintenance of this network by 3 years and to develop it. The scheduled evolution includes the ability to switch to MCPTT (4G network), as was the case with Finland. After Germany, Sweden is the country with the largest Airbus Tetra network.
SDBR News: Can we discuss the German market ?
Eric Davalo: Germany is the country with the largest Tetra network in the world in terms of the number of radio base stations, with the equivalent of 5,000 radio base stations and over a million users: traditional security forces, plus local police, plus a certain number of critically important operators (OIVs). It is a very dense and widely used network. We are in the process of preparing the complete renewal of the core network by switching to IP technology on Tetra, with the renewal of some of the radio base stations so that this network can be used until 2030/2035. At the same time, we are assessing our Agnet technology and performing demonstrations to illustrate the potential of mobile broadband. As for Agnet, today we are no longer at the technological test phase, but are essentially asking ourselves how we can introduce it to different users according to the specificity of each country: organisation, commitment doctrines, audio accessories, the terminal capacity, etc. Adopting Agnet in a country requires working with the users to help them define their new principles of use and the type of terminals and accessories they will need, not to mention the overall security. We have already successfully completed this experience for security and emergency rescue forces in Europe, as well as on other continents.
SDBR News: Do you have a presence in Switzerland ?
Eric Davalo: In Switzerland, the national radio communication network Polycom, which was installed by Airbus through its Swiss partner Atos, has been dedicated to critical missions since its roll-out in 2000. The network comprises 40 main switches, 110 secondary switches and over than 750 base stations. It serves 55,000 users, including cantonal and federal police forces, firefighters, rescue workers, civil protection officers, border guards and the army. In 2017, the Swiss project “Sustaining the value of Polycom 2030” aimed to establish a sustainable radio communications network based on Tetrapol technology, the progressively modernised system migrating from the existing Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) technology to Internet Protocol (IP) technology. This is what is happening, with the validation in two cantons before its full deployment throughout the rest of the country. At the same time, thanks to interesting initiatives, we were able to demonstrate how to use our Agnet solution with Internet of Things solutions to improve security and tactical understanding for stakeholders.
SDBR News: How cans the Internet of Things be incorporated into a Tetra network?
Eric Davalo: Two types of Internet of Things are used: mobile or on-board sensors and stationary sensors. Concerning on-board sensors for first responders, many sensors exist on the market: for detecting heart movements, identifying a type of gas, detecting acceleration, etc. This captured information can be sent to the Agnet tool, which will process it through specific applications and share it according to the situation and the stakeholders. Detecting bizarre or dangerous situations can allow the dispatcher to alert the intervention group to which the agent who issues this information belongs, and to automatically trigger preventive or reactive actions such as triggering a stationary or pedestrian camera. Stationary sensors can be CBRN sensors, for example, and therefore make it possible to trigger an alert. The goal is to associate the sensors with a mission or operation. The interoperability capability of the Airbus Agnet solution enables it to take advantage of very high speed mobile networks and Tetra networks to bring these new services to first responders.
SDBR News: By adding sensor information, isn’t there a risk of operational saturation?
Eric Davalo: There are two important issues here. First, the sensor must be integrated into a mission which can be defined by a group of people or a geographical area. Second, the processing of the reported information must be predefined so that the result of this processing can immediately be used by the worker or the dispatcher. The main work here is not technological but consists in being able to specifically describe the principles of use and to implement them in a truly operational way. Information for information’s sake is not usable operationally. We are also working a lot on voice recognition and language processing to automatically trigger actions or provide information to first responders via audio. Indeed, audio remains the preferred means of communication in many critical situations.
